Morgan Reflects On Yeovil

Interim manager Chris Morgan was pleased with his squads outing at Huish Park at the weekend, and feels hard done by to not come away with all three points.

The fixture was Morgan and Ned Kelly’s first in charge of the Valiants, after being named joint interim managers.

Morgan spoke to the club website earlier today about the weekend’s result: “We were disappointed to come away not having won the game, we thought we did enough to win the game. We thought we took a well deserved lead and then obviously they [Yeovil] got themselves back in the game.

“But to be fair to the boys, they [Yeovil] had about 5 or 6 corners on the spin so we had to dig deep and see it through. So on reflection, disappointed not to come away with three points, but, when you go away from home you have to make sure you come away with something.”

The former Blades centre-back opted for a more defensive set up on their 384 mile round trip to Somerset, and made it known that they had been toying with the idea of the 3-5-2 formation for some time: “It was something that we spoke about previously, whilst Michael was still here. We feel that we have five good centre-halves at the club. We had looked at it, and toyed with the idea in the office but never followed through with it.

“Myself and Ned came in on the Monday and said lets give it a whirl. Let’s get on the training ground and see what happens and first and foremost see how the boys adapt to it.”

Furthermore, the 39-year old felt that it was beneficial all over the pitch, none more so that in the wide positions: “We thought that in young Gibbo [James Gibbons] and Tyler [Denton] that we had two excellent, young, fit fullbacks that could do the wide role.

However, both wing-back positions were later compromised in the game as Denton withdrew due to illness, and Gibbons saw red with 10-minutes left on the clock.

Despite this, Morgan felt that Gibbons played well on his first start for the club: “We thought that Gibbo [James Gibbons] was managing Otis Kahn very well. We thought about switching him over to the left, but we thought that Gibbo [James Gibbons] was tying Otis [Kahn] down a little bit.”

Vale now look ahead to a tough fixture at home against Accrington Stanley. Stanley travel to Burslem sitting fourth in the league table and off the back of a 1-1 draw at home against struggling Cheltenham Town.